A blog for the Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Looking Back on the March
10th Chapter Meeting and SingStrong Appearance

The chorus appeared on the DC SingStrong show at
2 pm on Sunday, March 8th at South Lakes Hi School in Reston.It was a great hit with three of our new
songs which were cheered wildly by the younger audience at the event.Earlier, Tony
Colosimo, Terry Reynolds, Doug White and Chris Odell taught a tag-singing class to the attendees at the
event.We assembled about 2 hours in
advance to warm up and review and to do a stage test for the presentation of
our package.Carlos Barillo and Tony
did the warm ups and prepared us for the show.Joe arrived from travel just
in time to join us on the stage.

Here’s a great summary by Dave Branstetter in his weekly pre-meeting communication: AN ENCOURAGING DEBUT . . .Today at Sing Strong
we debuted three of the songs we’ll be performing at our huge “American Icons”
concert in September. I think we can safely say all three were very well
received!! And if nothing else, that’s an indication that the bold step of
recreating our repertoire was a good step to take. But it says so much more.
It’s an indication of what this chorus is capable of. Think about it –
“Thriller”, “Lullabye”, “Stars and Stripes Forever”, and “Sweet Caroline” –
could four songs be more different in terms of style and character? Our ability
to perform those songs at a high level says something about us. We are a
barbershop chorus, but we are MORE than a chorus that just sings barbershop.
Simply put, we are musicians – delivering artistry and emotion through song.

Tuesday nite was a hard working nite and a huge
crowd of guys were present – over a hundred chorus members on the risers.Len
Dornberger decided to sing again for Pittsburgh and was back from Delaware.
Mike Geipel was back up from
Richmond. The FRIENDS IN HARMONY held a meeting this week too.

The front row worked before the rehearsal in a
separate room with choreographer Carlos
Barillo and Peelee Clark.On the stage, Chuck McKeever was leading choreo review on the uptune.

The 7 pm start time began with a
welcome-to-the-risers song by FOUR VOICES.Carlos and Reed Livergood conducted warm ups for
all.Director Joe Cerutti welcomed Brandon
Guyton, our coach for tonite. Brandon won the collegiate quartet contest
with FOUR VOICES and they went on to win the BHS gold medal.He also sang in CROSSROADS and earned a
second gold medal. Brandon worked
with Joe all evening on the contest.
We are all excited that he will return to work with us for our major weekend
retreat, May29-31 at Westminster College in Western Maryland, along with David Wright.

Quartet promotion chairman Calvin Schnure recognized our chapter quartets that will appear at
the International Preliminary Quartet contest in Harrisburg, PA, this
weekend.They will be vying to the right
to sing in the quartet contest in Pittsburgh.Quartets are MAYHEM, LAST MEN STANDING, YOUTH RECLAMATION PROJECT and
FORCAST.

Shows vp Nick
Leiserson thanked all who made the SingStrong appearance go well.And he announced the dates for the annual
holiday show.It will be Saturday
December 12th at 2 pm and

8 pm at Schlesinger Hall on NVCC campus in
Alexandria.

Nick also gave a plug for the Aca Challenge event on
March 21st at Lincoln Theater on U Street in DC. The chorus call is
5:30 pm – singers should plan to eat prior to arrival.Details about uniforms and such to come to
all via email.Tickets for the show are
available on the website. The event has drawn over 30 groups to apply for the
slots in the contest.

Music vp Steve
White reminded singers to begin serious work on “Happy” and to be prepared
for another recording session on March 24th.

President Terry
Reynolds announced that Jean Wachter
is still in the hospital and is slowly making progress. Ross Johnson is still in the hospital and recovered. Skip Coburn is in Howard University
Hospital with double pneumonia.

Marketing vp David Branstetter gave an update on the chapter marketing logo.
More info to come to all members.

Secretary Chris
Buechler presented membership renewal cards to new member Mike Moncibaiz for 10 years ; Josh DesPortes for 3 years; Chris Odell for 6 years; Noah Van Gilder for 8 years; Sam McFarland for 28 years; Will Cox for 37 years; and Bob Wachter for 63 years.The chorus rose and applauded in tribute to Bob.Alan Lamson was given his 35
year card and a lapel pin.

Membership vp Rich Hewitt announced the I-Pad Brigade that is available each week
before the meeting, at break or after the meeting to help guys update their
Groupanizer attendance plans.These are
important for show planners. Then he welcome a good line up of guests – several
new men have completed applications.

After break, we went back to work with Brandon.We ended the evening with a chance to make a
self-evaluation recording.There was a
video recording made as well, so that members could begin the process of
self-evaluation for their visual work.

Another good crowd made
it over to LaPortas for the afterglow.For any tag singers, there is a crew of guys at the afterglow who can
help you and welcome you to join them.

Until next time –
editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you
were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record
of the great things going on each week during the 67th year of the
Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.